Scooter mobile

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BMW Isetta

A scooter mobile or cabin scooter is a miniature car from the first years after the Second World War , when these vehicles were created as an inexpensive alternative to full-fledged cars . They are partly based on motorcycle or scooter technology. In their time, these vehicles were mostly simply referred to as small cars , but today this term describes a larger vehicle class . Today's equivalent is more the light vehicle .

history

The term microcar was built in the first years after the Second World War in West Germany for very small cars. Conventional cars were only affordable for a few. There was therefore a need for an inexpensive alternative to the car. The vehicles that were then developed took on very idiosyncratic forms, especially at the beginning, due to their small size and simple design.

The scooter mobiles were mostly motorized with air-cooled single - cylinder two-stroke engines from motorcycle construction, sometimes with two-cylinder engines . In three- wheeled scooter mobiles, the individual rear wheel was almost always driven by a chain . With a displacement of up to 250 cubic centimeters, they were allowed to be driven with the Class 4 driving license at the time without a practical driving test. But there were also very small and light scooter mobiles with scooter motors with even smaller displacements . The smallest mobiles were also called moped cars . The Brütsch Mopetta had a model name based on it.

One of the most famous scooter mobiles is the Messerschmitt cabin scooter , which made this type of automobile known beyond the borders of western Germany. In the centrally controlled economy of the GDR , the scooter mobiles were considered inexpedient and therefore, from the beginning, the development of a small car to motorize a broader group of people, which after many years of development finally led to the Trabant , which appeared in 1958.

Also a very popular microcar is originally from the Milan manufacturer Iso Rivolta developed Isetta , apart from BMW in Germany and in France , Spain , Great Britain and Argentina in license was made. At the same time, further development of this template resulted in the Heinkel cabin . Three-wheeled vehicles (not just scooter mobiles) have long been popular, especially in the UK, as they were low- taxed (like a motorcycle) and could be driven with a motorcycle license. Some of these bubble cars were also designed and built in the UK.

A number of in-house developments were also made in Spain. Another country where scooter mobiles were widespread and where the very high taxation of four-wheeled cars in the 1950s and 1960s made them last for a particularly long time was Greece . Here, various vehicles of this type were usually built as tricycles, the best known being the Alta 200 and Attica 200 , both of which were based on a license from the Fuldamobil .

The three-wheeled Italian Piaggio Ape , which has been part of the street scene in his home country for decades and which was also exported in smaller numbers , is still such a vehicle today.

The auto rickshaws or tuk-tuks that are still widespread in South and Southeast Asia today are similar to the earlier scooter mobiles, as they are based on motorcycle and scooter technology, similar to the Piaggio Ape .

Due to the small dimensions of the scooter mobiles, which did not allow a crumple zone , the occupants in these vehicles were exposed to a greater risk of injury in accidents than in a car.

Historic scooter mobiles

Well-known historical scooters and cabin scooters as well as post-war small cars are:

Germany

  • Fend runabout

  • Fuldamobil

  • Messerschmitt KR 200

  • BMW Isetta

  • Goggomobil

  • Heinkel cabin

  • Brütsch Mopetta

  • Zündapp Janus

Great Britain

Italy

Spain

Czechoslovakia

United States

Scooter mobiles in the 21st century

The scooter mobiles of the post-war period later became popular classic cars . The three-wheeled auto rickshaws or tuk-tuks from South and Southeast Asia as well as the three-wheeled pickup truck Piaggio Ape from Italy, which is also available in a four-wheeled version (Ape Poker), but in this form is not actually a scooter mobile, are still regularly used scooters Sense is more.

Concept vehicles based on historical models are the Loremo , the VW Nils , the Toyota i-Road , the Aptera 2 Series , the Torq EV and a three-wheeler from Elio Motors . Other models are the Piaggio Ape (Italy / India) and the now discontinued SAM (Switzerland / Poland). The Renault Twizy , which has been built since 2011, also takes up the vehicle concept again. In 2016 , the electrically powered Microlino scooter model based on the BMW Isetta was presented as a prototype at the Geneva Motor Show. In 2019, the electric scooter Futura presented the electric cabin scooter "Futura 2".

Pictures of modern scooter mobiles

  • Piaggio Ape 50 - still manufactured today

  • Autorickshaw from the Indian manufacturer Bajaj

  • SAM Cree (1995 and 2009-2014)

  • Electric cabin scooter "Futura 2" from the e-scooter brand "Elektroroller Futura"

  • Microlino (2019 in Imola in front of the Tazzari administration)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Realities and wrong turns in small car construction. In: Motor Vehicle Technology 5/1954, pp. 145–150.
  2. ↑ Toyota i-Road - electric tricycle - electric cabin scooter . In: motomobil . Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  3. ↑ Ex-Aptera Founder Reveals New Electric Sports Car, TORQ Roadster . In: Green Car Reports . March 25, 2013. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  4. ↑ Elio Takes Another Step Toward Building 3-Wheeler In Ex-GM Plant . In: Green Car Reports . January 9, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
  5. ↑ Herbie Schmitdt: Electrical Isetta. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . February 23, 2016, accessed March 14, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Jürgen Pander: For smooching. In: Spiegel Online . March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 14, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Buy cheap electric scooters online in Koblenz. Retrieved on March 2, 2020 (German).
  8. ↑ Buy cheap electric scooters online in Koblenz. Retrieved on March 2, 2020 (German).